Curated blockchain and cryptocurrency news – Week 49

Our curated list is published weekly on www.crypto-news.net and is designed to provide you with the insight necessary to understand cryptocurrency and blockchain. We focus on developments that have the highest impact for the overall market and indiscriminately share them with you, regardless if we have covered them in our primary news or not.

These lists are most useful for people that do not have a lot of time to dedicate to following the cryptocurrency marketplaces and weekly traders that typically spend anywhere between 6-10 hours analyzing the news for key stories.

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Unlike last week, where Bitcoin was holding strong, this week we are looking at a different story. A particular down trend has developed over the course of these 7 days with some significant price movements on the 6th, 7th and 9th of December.

The market has recorded a loss on the weekly chart, but understanding how volatile things can become this is still considered quite stable. On the 6th of December probably the strongest event was the Morgan Creek bet, which you can read more about below.

Between the 7th and the 8th of December we notice a rather odd dump, which quickly recovered. There is a lack of negative news that could have affected the market, so this movement is most likely a whale (or group of whales) looking to shake out weak hands. It seems that he was successful, as the market did follow through on his lead.

The events on the 9th are in line with the announcement by IBM for their collaboration with Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC the 12th largest oil producer in the world. Other events that may have caused the positive movement is the showcasing of India’s government panel’s recommendations for cryptocurrency and Facebook’s publicized intentions to hire blockchain engineers.

The Bitcoin price does not always follow the news, as the market is decentralized and the majority of investors do not have a financial background. In addition, the industry is still new and relatively not established, so news and other types of information have a varied effect on the market.

Sometimes positive news are matched with negative price movements and vice versa, further strengthening the opinion that cryptocurrency markets do not follow the outcome of news as seen in the traditional investment world.

Binance revealed that they are going to create “Binance Chain” where the main gas cryptocurrency will be their proprietary token “BNB”. It is still unclear when the blockchain will become operational but there is some information that is pointing towards the end of this year or early 2019. In addition to their blockchain, they will also create a decentralized exchange, which will enable thousands of cryptocurrency projects to list their tokens. Binance is fighting hard to remain a leader in the field and is doing everything it can to continue to provide value for the ecosystem.

Decentralized exchanges are maintained by the use of smart contracts and contribute to the original vision of decentralized cryptocurrencies. In recent light of regulatory developments we are looking forward to seeing how Binance will handle the various requirements from various organizations such as the IMF.

December 5th

Switzerland is breaking new ice with their latest announcement for the upcoming FinTech license under the responsibility of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) which provides a clear distinction between FinTech and Banking.

One of the most important aspects of the license is the fact that it will grant these companies the ability to raise CHF 100 million from the public, as long as the funds are not invested and there is not interest paid on them. Naturally, the license is only available for Swiss-based businesses that operate in Switzerland. Whether this means that businesses operating under this license will not be able to provide foreign individuals with their services is unclear at the moment.

This license will enable various cryptocurrency and blockchain organizations to enjoy a rather relaxed regulatory environment when compared to banks. This should not affect the ICO markets too much, as securities are still heavily regulated and utility tokens do not have any issues (apart from being listed as a security).

December 6th

From a regulatory perspective, cryptocurrency is often seen as a vehicle for money laundering and rightly so. The decentralized nature of most cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum means that there is no control or oversight over the exchange of money, creating loopholes through which individuals and companies can avoid paying taxes. These loopholes exist in the traditional financial system regulation as well and are sometimes utilized by numerous high ranking officers in banks or corporations in an attempt to avoid paying millions (or billions) of dollars in taxes.

Japan is dedicated to track down all cryptocurrency tax evaders and money launderers even if the relative number of these individuals is small, especially when compared to the overall picture. The total amount of suspected money launderers is 346,139, from which only 6000 are related to cryptocurrency. With the increase of hacking activities Japanese officials are striving to boost the security protocols in order to prevent stolen funds or unpaid tax to escape court justice.

December 7th

CVC, DNT, LOOM and MANA order books will soon enter transfer-only mode. We will accept inbound transfers of these assets, but traders cannot place orders and no orders will be filled. Order books will be in transfer-only mode for a minimum of 48 hours. https://t.co/drhrNCKQOG

Coinbase announced that it’s looking to add an additional 31 cryptocurrencies to the already existing roster available on the platform. The official announcement only claimed that the company is exploring the cryptocurrencies, but shortly after Coinbase Pro actually opened the doors for Civic, district0x, Loom Network and Decentraland.

The rest of the tokens included in the announcement have yet to see the light of day and it is unclear whether they will end up being included on the platform. The blog post only commits to the idea of exploration and analysis, and does not provide any conclusion in regards to the actual implementation.

Regardless, this is an unprecedented move for Coinbase, an exchange widely recognized by its extensive KYC and AML procedures and close collaboration with regulators. In the past the exchange has stayed away from the majority of tokens, so this really begs the question, “What changed?”

December 8th

Over the last six months PayPal has been working in secret to develop an internal blockchain initiative and has finally made it available to the company’s workforce in mid-November. The PayPal’s San Jose Innovation Lab is responsible for the development of the system that the company hopes to incentivize employees to undertake activities that will help the company’s innovation efforts.

Employees can redeem these internal tokens for various experiences generated by the community and they can trade them with other employees. PayPal is providing a first-hand experience with blockchain and cryptocurrency for all of their employees, suggesting that the company is interested in moving closer to the technology. Historically PayPal has been against the adoption of Bitcoin which is why this story comes at a surprise. According to the company’s director of innovation the PayPal wants to educate the employees so they can bring the technology to the business, assuming there is a business case in the first place.

December 9th

IBM, well-known for their active participation in the implementation of blockchain systems across various businesses has partnered up with Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC, one of the top 12 oil producers in the world.

They will leverage IBM’s blockchain solutions and expertise to create a supply-chain implementation that will save them time, energy, and labor. The blockchain solution will track the production of oil and the monetary value of the yields. In addition it will follow the distribution of the products and their transformations through other ADNOC operational centers.

During the pilot stage, access to view the information will be available only to the company, but their plans include the involvement of all stakeholders and investors.

Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, ADNOC Digital Unit says: “Blockchain is a game-changer. It will substantially reduce our operating costs by eliminating time-consuming and labor-intensive processes, strengthen the marketing and trading of our products, and create long-term sustainable value that will ensure that ADNOC delivers on its 2030 smart growth strategy.”

While we are not sure if this will affect oil prices in the long-run or will the market let the company enjoy increased profits due to eliminating the operational overhead.

December 10th

Bitmain, the largest producer of cryptocurrency mining equipment has felt the sharp cut by a market which has sustained its operations for the entirety of its existence. As a result the company has been forced to investigate their strategy and align with the current situation.

Unfortunately for the team in Israel, the decision ended up being to close down operations and lay everyone off. Surprisingly the VP of sales and marketing, Gadi Glikberg has also been laid off. Whether he was fired due to lack of results or left by his own volition the reasons remain unknown for now, and we will most likely never know. This story was selected to showcase the dangers for cryptocurrency focused companies, especially ones that have received ICO investments and hoped to use that money to fuel the development of the business.

Changes in the market are almost always dangerous, and only those that can predict the outcomes can hope to avoid being caught in the aftermath of market developments.

We’ve curated this list including what we believe to be the most important news to our readers and you play a very important role in making sure to keep this list helpful and relevant. We try our best to include only the most important stories, but naturally some days are void of major developments.

By commenting on this article or another weekly list, you can provide us some insight into what is really important for you, which will in turn improve the relevancy of these articles.

Copywriter, Journalist, Blockchain Enthusiast. Writing with Crypto-News.net since 2016. Loves to travel and experience different cultures. Highly ambitious and with an ever-increasing attraction towards quality work, products, services, and experiences. You can find him on Telegram where he has been known to spend his time making friends, and doing business. @ZoranSpirkovski